It sounds like science fiction, but journalist Stephen Petranek considers it fact: within 20 years, humans will live on Mars. In this provocative talk, Petranek makes the case that humans will become a spacefaring species and describes in fascinating detail how we'll make Mars our next home. "Humans will survive no matter what happens on Earth," Petranek says. "We will never be the last of our kind."

Do you think that Humans will live on Mars within 20 years? Others are already saying Humans will arrive in 10 years time!

I was listening to a radio call in show the other day (no idea which one) and a guest scientist was saying the same thing. Base on Mars in 20 years. The thing is, I think we have the technology and the ability to do this and it would be an incredible accomplishment, but..

Who's going to fund this? Is sadly the biggest question and obstacle it seems to me. Is it all down NASA?

Bit of a risky venture? I'm with you there Lieutenant, the risks on the JOURNEY THERE alone are truly colossal. it's hard not to be cynical about just the trip there on it's own. nine months, all the way there and yes I know it can be done but what sort of shape are our heroes going to be in, at the end of that 9 months anyway?

should they arrive on Mars in any kind of picture of health at all then the real nightmare begins. as far as I am concerned they should all be on double time

all this 9 months stuff is pretty absurd really, but it is based on current technology of course

In the background, various people are getting their ION DRIVE on the drawing board, their nuclear fission drive oh and what about the warp drive, well no actually the "short distance" of Earth to Mars would not apply to any such "short cut" 4th dimensional travel

even so, futuristic travel "engines" are in the pipeline that will cut that 9 months down to half or less and will be far more manageable and less risky to accomplish

and when I say "in the pipeline" what does that mean? 20 years? 30 years ahead? will any of it actually ever happen in reality?

Take all the money currently spent on this project of "how we can get to Mars and survive there etc" and spend it on sorting out the mess we've made of our current home? The pollution, the millions of homeless and starving people, the millions without access to clean drinking water and decent sanitation, the wildlife habitats lost and species pushed close to extinction.

Let's get those problems sorted out before we go off into space and f*ck up another planet.

that would be nice but pointless with the unstoppable acceleration in human population that we now have

It took hundreds of thousands of years for the world population to grow to 1 billion – then in just another 200 years or so, it grew sevenfold. In 2011, the global population reached the 7 billion mark, and today, it stands at about 7.3 billion. According to current projections, the global population will reach eight billion by 2024, and will likely reach around nine billion by 2037.